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The author presents in his contribution in a critical manner an outline regarding the development of self-evaluation in Scotland during the last decade. In 1988 in Scotland the context for school improvement and accountability was external inspection. Although this did not mean that schools themselves were unconcerned with improvement and accountability, schools tended to see much of the responsibility for quality assurance and accountability as lying outside their control. The author characterises what schools at that time could be. From the late eighties onwards teams of teachers, university researchers and Scottish Office policy advisers worked together to fashion a new system. In 1992 a set of self-evaluation guidelines were launched, distributed to all schools in Scotland, primary, secondary and special schools. They contained an indicator framework, a set of suggested criteria, tools for self-evaluation, guidelines on their use, and examples of professional development activities for teachers. In the final section of his essay "The challenge ahead" the author formulates six characteristics typical of the self-evaluating school. (DIPF/Orig./Ba.).